Energy facts from oil to electricity

About

Using knowledge gained from a lifetime of activity working in the energy arena, Donn writes for Power For USA.

Donn began his career at General Electric testing large steam turbines and generators used by utilities to generate electricity; followed, by manufacturing and marketing assignments at the Transformer Division. Later he led an organization servicing these and other GE products in the United States. He then established facilities around the world to service power generation, transmission and other electric equipment. Donn was involved with the work done at customer locations; steel mills, electric utilities, refineries, oil drilling and production facilities and open pit and underground mining operations. At every opportunity, he learned of the needs of these industries.

Donn has toured Saudi Arabia including a close-up inspection of the eastern province with its oil producing and shipping facilities. He has investigated many of the other oil producing countries in the Mideast and Northern Europe, as well as examining iron-ore mining locations and major shipping centers in Europe and Asia. All told, Donn has visited over 50 countries and has knowledge of their need for the technologies that can improve their well being and their use of equipment manufactured in the United States.

Following his retirement as a senior GE Company executive, he continued to study and write about energy issues. Before retiring as president of TSAugust, a 501 (C) 3 think tank comprised entirely of volunteers, he wrote for tsaugust.

He has written two books as well as various papers and articles. He also speaks about energy issues at professional meetings, at conferences, and on cruise ships.

Donn has been active in the community, serving two terms on the board of the Reston Association, the second largest such association with over 60,000 residents.

Donn is a graduate of the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy and served on active duty in the U.S. Navy.

Aloha Donn:
Got latest blog today: “Carbon Gauntlet.” As I was reading first chapters, I remembered transporting a Saudi Arabian couple and their children from cruise ship to Mama’s Fish House, a famous restaurant here on Maui, HI. I thought she looked like a “princess” and told her so. She said she was in fact, a Saudi Princess from Saudi Arabia; her husband – I don’t remember his social status. Anyway, I learned that she worked for Karebone in NYC. So, I googled Karbone and discovered it exists to create and game the carbon market. Just the incredibly rich people for whom Al Gore and his cronies were/are writing laws that will allow them to legally steal from the poor and give to the rich. “The rich get richer and the poor get poorer.” Especially when the rich can buy politicians who will write laws that allow them to gather the money from others – into their holdings, legally, like Karbone.

If you haven’t seen their website, it will only take a few minutes for you to figure out their game – pretty much exactly as you outlined in Carbon Gauntlet. It looks to me, with the limited knowledge and experience I have, that the oil-rich Saudi’s are keeping their fingers in the pie, no matter whose or what the pie.

I accidentally unsubscribed to your blog earlier and had to resubscribe. I appreciate your perspicacity and articulate presentations; as well as vast and varied background.

Now, after reading just some of your “Carbon Gauntlet,” I understand why the current investors in the HER energy devices: ZED and TAZ, are willing to put up millions of $$.
They have already sold the entire first years production and haven’t even started building them. It is of this reason, I feel I need to find an investor here in Hawaii willing to get involved so we can build a factory in Hawaii and start building our own models, ASAP. Otherwise, we stay a few years down the pipeline – waiting for product.

I know you would never get involved, even though, from everything you’ve outlined and then thoroughly explained; the ZED is exactly what worldwide society needs, right now.
A hui ho’u,
Steven Blue

Steven:
Thanks for your comments. You are correct in that I don’t get involved with VC type investments, but I hope you are successful.
Saudi Arabia is an interesting situation, even given their interest in carbon and gaming the carbon market.
I’ll post an article in the next week or so to discuss why it’s advantageous for Saudi Arabia to invest in concentrating solar to generate electricity.
Thanks for subscribing.

We shouldn’t be trying to cut CO2 emissions, other than those that happen naturally with the shift to natural gas for power generation. We are making a huge mistake trying to follow the President’s plan to cut CO2 emissions.

Thanks for your information.
Smart meters can perform functions that are useful to the utility. For example, they can help identify location of faults. They also eliminate the need for meter readers which is a large cost savings, which should, but doesn’t, eliminate the need for public funding to install them.
I do not believe they pose a health risk any more than WIFI, power lines or any other similar radio or electromagnetic radiation does.
They have been over hyped as being a key component to the smart grid, which has also been over hyped.

All you say is true, however the Smart Meter’s two-way feature permits utility to control usage – as example to ‘tune’ your thermostat.
Monitoring activity at 15 minute intervals seems an excessive invasion of privacy.
We now have a ‘semi’ Smart Meter -which transmits usage info -still has 20 years of useful life -and it will be discarded -no meter reader comes to our doors.
But the worst part is that the cost will soar as is revealed in Maine’s experience. There cost savings have turned into significant losses, requiring increased rates.
Time-of-use pricing is said to be the biggest benefit, yet when Germany studied them, they rejected Smart Meters as the potential costs are mostly borne by home owners with potential savings going to industry.
Has any state actually studied their cost/benefits -Our Pennsylvania did not, before rushing through a law which mandates their implementation.

The article referred to a brief moment when renewables accounted for 87% of the total electricity usage. For that brief period of time, the public should have received a credit. But for the entire year, renewables only accounted for 25% (perhaps slightly more this year) of generation, and the cost of electricity to consumers were 4 to 5 times that of US consumers.
At other times during the year, renewables would account for 80% or so, of generation, for a few minutes, but these momentary spikes are not meaningful when viewed in context of the entire year.